IELTS Reading - COMPREHENSION SKILL: Understanding the “theme” of the whole passage

You can improve your score by improving your comprehension skills. An important part of "comprehending" a given passage or part of the passage (a paragraph) is to understand the essence and theme of it.

 

What is the theme of a passage/paragraph?
A theme is the “main” idea or concept.

 

If a reader can locate and/or understand the theme or main idea then comprehending the rest of the passage becomes a lot easier.

 

How to locate and comprehend the “theme”?

The theme of the “whole passage” can usually be found in the heading and subheading. For example look at the following examples of headings:

 

 

1. APICULTURE.

 

Beekeeping has been practiced by humans for ages.

 

 

 

2. AT THE MERCY OF HUMANS

 

Ecosystem under threat because of the development done by humans

 

 

 

3. INSOMNIA

 

Inability to sleep

 

 

• What comes to your mind after reading each of the above headings?

 

• What do you think the passage which follows will be about?

 

• Do you find it helpful to have an initial idea of what the passage might be about?

 

Most candidates of IELTS test feel more comfortable in attempting the questions if they have an idea of what the passage is about. The easiest way to do so is to read the “heading”. Most headings clearly define the theme of the passage.

 

The above headings clearly give us an idea what the passage will be about:

• Heading #1 tells us that the passage will be about “beekeeping”.
• Heading#2 tells that the passage will be about how ecosystem is badly affected by the developments being made by humans. 
• Heading#3 tells us that passage will be about “sleeplessness” (the inability to sleep).

 

FURTHER PRACTICE:

 

Magazines, News Papers, Newsletters etc both paper based and electronic (available electronically on the Internet) are excellent resources for reading headings and sub-headings in order to understand the possible theme of the passage. As you practice more, you will feel a lot more comfortable in reading different texts of which you have no prior knowledge. You will specifically be focusing on the given text and that’s what the IELTS test expects you to do: read and understand the text and then answer the questions!

Writing Module - Basics!

What you need to know before you begin writing?

This is general advice regarding the writing module and applicable to both parts of academic and general training modules.

Read the question (the topic) very carefully and make sure you fully understand what you are being asked to do? It may seem very obvious but some topics may not be as clear as we might think they are. Understanding the question/topic is highly essential because if you digress from the topic or write something irrelevant you will give the examiner/assessor the impression that you have not understood the topic in the first place.

In other words, if someone cannot properly understand or comprehend a question posed in English how can he/she write well on that topic?

Digressing from the topic, or writing irrelevant stuff just to increase the number of words can cost the candidates dearly as they can lose vital marks.

How to comprehend a topic? Here's how!

Reading Module - a few basics!

These points and tips are applicable to both academic and general training modules

What is expected from the candidates?


The reading module assesses a candidate’s ability to comprehend written material in English language. Simply put, you are given a score on “how well” you can understand the given passage(s). You can answer the questions only if you understand the given passage(s).

Key to reading and “comprehending” the passages:

The key to do well in the reading module is to underline important points and key concepts, as you read the given text. Thinking it is pretty obvious? Yes it is and unfortunately also often taken for granted! Firstly, it must be understood that the questions are usually set on the key issues being discussed in the passage and if we overlook them then it might be a little difficult to answer particular types of questions.

Secondly, by underlining important points, it is easier to come back to the text and look for an answer rather than groping and looking for it by reading the whole text or a part of the paragraph again. (How to pin point key ideas will be discussed in detail in later post.)
Be confident because the questions are 100% “from” the given passage(s) and you are not required to have any additional or previous knowledge regarding the topic. (Every passage will have a set of questions which follow it. There are three passages for the candidates to read and answer questions regarding them.)

You need to:

• Be able to fully comprehend/understand text written in English.

• Have a good reading speed (points to improve speed will be discussed in detail)

• Answer the questions (answers must be written on the provided answer sheet and “not” on the question paper).

Tips on answering different types of specific questions (like True, False and Not Given, Fill in the blanks/gaps, matching etc.) will be discussed in detail in following posts.